
Glass J S ftfo ^ 



TION, 






MARIETTA KIES. 
When a teacher at Mt. Holyoke, 1887. 



Ifn flfoemoriam 



Marietta Ikies, B.fli>., flM)-£>. 



December 31, 1853 — $ul£ 20, 1809 



^S^ 










1T will give unto bim tbat is atbtrst of tbe 
fountain of tbe water of life freely 1be tbat 
overcometb sball inberit tbese tblngs," 



D 






4 '.'/s> 



Boston 

IMntefc bv> jfranR TKHoofc 
1900 



By Tranafc* 



,*v 



^ 



" The Church in its historic institutional life has been of great influence in 
making and remaking all kinds of customs in all phases of life. And while ethics 
should not consider the Church from the standpoint of historical and doctrinal 
Theology, yet it should examine the principles and customs of the Church along 
with the other institutions of society from the standpoint of Reason. What can be 
the reason for the silence of evolutional ethics upon an institution so important from 
its nature and from its historical significance ? If there is little room for a personal 
God in evolutional ethics and less acknowledgment of the existence of freedom and 
immortality, then, although there may be such a basis, a possibility in the individual 
life for the exemplification of the cardinal virtues, temperance, justice, prudence, 
and fortitude, yet faith, hope, and charity have no meaning in such a system." — 
Dr. Marietta Kies in " Institutional Ethics" page xiii. 

" Love to others, or an altruism that implies both the giving and the receiving, 
is the fundamental principle of the ethical side of the Church, and pre-eminently of 
the Christian Church."— Ibid., page xiv. 

" While theology is more directly concerned with the historical and doctrinal 
phases of the Church, the ethics of the Church has for its province a consideration 
of the scope of the Golden Rule as a precept for action, both in the development of 
the Church as an institution, and also in the relation of the Church to society; this 
includes an investigation of the various forms of Church organization to see if these 
exemplify the highest ethical principle — the Golden Rule." — Ibid., page xiv. 



preface 



I have been asked to write a few words of preface to 
this volume, and to give, over my signature, my impres- 
sions regarding the personality and career of the gifted 
young woman to whose memory this book is dedicated. 

Miss Marietta Kies, while engaged in teaching philoso- 
phy in Mount Holyoke Seminary, often conferred with 
me regarding points in philosophy relating to such impor- 
tant questions as the personality of God, the immortality 
of the human soul, and the freedom of the will. 

I found her deeply earnest and persistent in the study 
of these questions. To her earnestness is due the fact 
that she made rapid progress in understanding the most 
subtle arguments on these themes, and I found from year 
to year that she grew in ability to see at a glance the 
trend or bearing of an abstract thought. I was highly 
gratified at the ability which she showed in compiling 
from my own writings a number of discussions which she 
succeeded in arranging in a systematic form. I thought 
that she comprehended the thought which I had tried to 
express completely. Naturally after this propedeutic or 
elementary study in my own writings I expected that she 

5 



preface 

would herself pursue the mastery of the great thinkers, 
such as Plato and Aristotle, Kant and Hegel, as well as 
select some line of original work in philosophy. In this 
I was not disappointed, for 1 had opportunity to observe 
that she gained in her ability to understand the deepest 
thinkers of the world, and that she finally produced a 
book of the first order on the subject of institutional ethics 
containing profound original thinking and thoughts which 
throw great light upon topics in sociology. 

I consider her death a great loss to American philoso- 
phy, and hoped from the first that those friends of hers 
who are well acquainted with her private life of struggle 
and victory would write out their reminiscences, so that 
other aspiring youth in our country may profit by her life 
journey, brief though it was. 

We have very many people who are eminent for piety 
of the heart, and perhaps quite as large a number in New 
England are eminent for piety of the will, but we have 
very few who are eminent for piety of the intellect. Miss 
Marietta Kies was eminent for piety of the intellect. 
Piety of the heart consists in love of God and of Divine 
things. Such love may exist in the heart without any 
special tendency to act in behalf of Divine things or to 
think and understand Divine things. Piety of the will 
consists in the habit of doing good, the habit of acting in 
such a way as to further the cause of righteousness and 
goodness in the world. Persons with piety of the heart 

6 



preface 

and without piety of the will may admire the good and 
have a genuine affection for it, but do not act to further 
the cause of righteousness and goodness because of some 
defect in the will. On the other hand there are many 
people who do not seem to have much piety of the 
heart ; that is, they do not seem to love their fellow-men 
as brethren, and yet they are always doing good and 
increasing righteousness and goodness. These persons 
sometimes lack sentiment very much but they abound in 
good works although harsh and crusty in their manner. 
But while they have piety of the will they may lack piety 
of the intellect as well as piety of the heart. They may 
in fact have no insight whatever into the historical move- 
ments of their time, the social and political changes which 
are making possible the realization of righteousness and 
goodness in the world. They may disbelieve in news- 
papers and schools and railroads. They may be timid 
with regard to the cultivation of the intellect and the 
study of natural science. But the one who has piety of 
the intellect sees the relation of all the great intellectual 
and social movements of his time, and easily discerns the 
hand of Providence in the progress of the age. The piety 
of the intellect loves enlightenment and takes great pleas- 
ure in discovering some new view which shows Divine 
reason operating in some province that before looked dark 
and unfavorable to religion and morals. Miss Kies was a 
rare person in this matter of the piety of the intellect. 



"No principle less than the Golden Rule is comprehensive enough to express 
the faith, hope, and love of the human soul. Love, as representing the celestial 
virtues, is an emotion sufficient to prompt the exercise of all the cardinal virtues, 
but the cardinal virtues do not necessarily include the celestial. 

" Faith, hope, and love in man reveal the fundamental thought of the universe. 
The explanation of their nature involves the explanation of all the thought of 
relationship to God." — "Institutional Ethics" page 50. 

"God the Father, in His own self-creation, creates also the Son, an eternal 
proc ss of giving up self ; so that the Son, in the recognition of His perfection and 
of His derivation from the Father, creates the Third Person, the Holy Spirit, mani- 
fested and revealed in the world of finite beings. This evolution of finite beings 
can be studied historically only as it has taken place upon our planet, the earth; but 
' the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork.' 

" Philosophical thought sees the necessity of evolution as a process of self- 
creation that is fundamental to the stage of ' scientific evolution ' ; for God is a 
Spirit, a Personality, and no theory of ' life evolution ' alone can account for ' spirit 
evolution.' And the divine altruism, made evident from the beginning in the 
creative process, is revealed in and through the thought and will of human beings 
in their attempts to secure their own self-development in the exercise of this same 
principle, the altruistic."— Ibid., pages 50, 51. 




Probably when teaching in Brooklyn, 187Q. 
When a pupil at Mt. Holyoke, While teaching at 

about 1881. Mt. Holyoke, about 1887. 

MARIETTA KIES. 



/iDemorial Sermon 



"And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the 
dead which die in the Lord from henceforth : Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may 
rest from their labors ; and their works do follow them." — Rev. xiv. 13. 

The most remarkable production of Windham County, 
historically speaking, is men. 

Those Revolutionary patriots — Jonathan Trumbull 
("Uncle Sam") and brave Israel Putnam — stand for a 
multitude of strong men and women, no less wise and 
heroic, who have gone out from the limits of this 
county to do grand service for God and humanity : 
eminent jurists, distinguished educators, editors and pub- 
lishers, eminent ministers, famous missionaries, great 
merchants, gifted artists, successful bankers and great 
financiers. Such names as those of Carpenter, Bond, 
Harris, Bowen, Hutchins, Howland, Tiffany, Danielson, 
Davis, General Lyon and others — not to mention younger 
men whose gifts and industry will soon be widely known 
— stand for quite a multitude whose honorable careers 
should occasion a just pride in, and whose names may 
well be cherished by, those of us who in our lesser spheres 
where God has placed us are seeking to benefit the world 
and to bring in that reign of truth and righteousness 
which is the kingdom of God in the earth. 

11 



Sermon bg TRev. S. Sberberne flftatbews 

I have set for myself this morning the attractive task 
of speaking of the career of one whose name should in 
common justice be written among the very highest upon 
this scroll of honor — and this whether regarded from a 
merely intellectual standpoint, or as one who by an 
exercise of sovereign choice made her own destiny, and 
fairly wrenched marked prosperity, truest thrift, and the 
most real success from a singularly unfriendly environ- 
ment. 

And yet I wish it distinctly understood at the outset 
that I am not to attempt this morning to speak ade- 
quately of this remarkable woman in whose memory 
we are now met. 

The regrettable fact that it was never my privilege to 
know her in life, or even to look upon her face till it 
lay white and cold in her casket, would of itself render 
me incompetent for such a task. I do wish, however, 
as her pastor, as pastor of the church which she dearly 
loved, and of which she has been so signally faithful 
and beloved a member, to lay my simple tribute of 
respectful admiration and sacred affection upon the spot 
where her dust now fittingly rests, and where her 
memory is so tenderly cherished. 

In the nature of the case there are many things about 
her which one who never saw her cannot know; many 
delicate traits of character which would reveal them- 
selves only to her most intimate friends. Yet after a 

12 



Sermon bg *Kev» 5. Sberberne fl&atbews 

careful study of all her published works, and many 
interviews with those whom for many years she had 
counted her nearest and dearest friends, and after sup- 
plementing these interviews with a somewhat extended 
correspondence, it has seemed to me that as her pastor 
I might without impropriety call attention to certain 
qualities in her character, and to certain achievements 
in her career, which have excited my own profound 
admiration ; and to point out certain lessons for the young 
and others which have been forced upon me as I have 
studied the career of this singularly gifted woman who so 
lately rested from her labors, while her works do follow 
her. 

Marietta Kies was born Dec. 31, 1853, m an old- 
fashioned farmhouse, upon a rugged farm in that portion 
of the town of Killingly, Conn, (in which the beautiful 
borough of Danielson lies), known, from the adjacent 
rugged hill, as the Mashentuck District. The name 
Keyes, afterward spelled Kies, appears in the county 
from almost the earliest times. As far back as 1722 
Elias Keyes bought land in the town of Ashford from 
James Corbin, one of the original settlers of " New Rox- 
bury" (now Woodstock), from Roxbury, Mass. Twelve 
years later this same Elias Keyes was appointed a mem- 
ber of a committee of nine " to hire three school dames " 
to teach in the three school districts of Ashford, in the 
place of the one schoolmaster who had previously taught 

13 



Sermon bg IRev. 5. Sberbeme dfcatbews 

the only school in the town. Nineteen years later, Sept. 
22, 1753, J° nn Kies was one of twenty-four citizens who 
signed a petition to the Assembly for permission to 
organize a new church in the town of Ashford, whose 
creed and government should be more strictly in accord 
with the New Testament teachings than the petitioners 
felt the existing High Calvinistic " consociated " church 
was. A certain Miss Mary Kies, of South Killingly, an 
ancestor of Marietta, invented a process of weaving silk 
or cotton and straw into a textile much used for a time 
for woman's wear, and received for it the first patent 
ever issued by the United States Government to a 
woman. 

The parents of Professor Kies were William Knight 
Kies and Mrs. Miranda (Young) Kies. Her father had a 
brother, Rev. Henry Kies (Amherst about 1850), a Con- 
gregational minister, who went West many years ago and 
met an early death in Iowa. A sister of her father was 
Miss Mary Ann, a graduate of Mt. Holyoke, and a woman 
of considerable scholarship and of great force of character. 
Her grandmother on the father's side, Mrs. Freelove 
(Buck) Kies, is said to have been a woman of excellent 
natural gifts. She passed out of life only two years ago 
at the ripe age of ninety -one years. 

A cousin of Miss Kies on her mother's side was the 
late Rev. Henry Francis Hyde, Amherst i860, Hartford 
Theological Seminary 1863, formerly a member of this 

14 



Sermon b£ IRev. S. Sbcrberne dfcatbews 

church, for many years, till his death, a trustee of Hart- 
ford Theological Seminary, and for a time instructor in 
theology there, dying in the pastorate of the Union Con- 
gregational church of Rockville, this State, May 28, 1880. 
A memorial volume of him is published. 

Marietta was the second of five children — all daughters. 
One of these sisters died a few years since. The remain- 
ing three, now Mrs. Theodore Stearns, Mrs. Walter F. 
Burton and Mrs. W. N. Arnold — herself a teacher before 
her marriage — still live among us. Her father, reputed a 
man of considerable original intellectual gifts, went out of 
life Feb. 10, 1890, at the age of sixty -six. 

The children in a family of seven whose living must 
be gotten out of the limited acres of a rocky New Eng- 
land farm, whose soil is mainly gravel with a surface of 
rocks, are likely to have to devote themselves to some- 
thing beside "fancy-work," even with the most thrifty 
parents. This was true in the case of Marietta and her 
sisters. 

The story of her life is quickly told. 

From earliest childhood she became increasingly and 
experimentally familiar with all kinds of work done upon 
a farm, in doors and out. In 1868 this girl of fourteen, 
who had often been reproved because from her early 
childhood she " always had a book in her hand" when- 
ever wanted, herself began to teach the district school in 
her own district of Mashentuck. Previous to this time, 

15 



Sermon bg TRcv. 5, Sberberne /Bbatbewa 

like Lucy Larcom of Lowell, she had worked in a mill near 
by. The money thus earned from time to time by work- 
ing or teaching she used as an aid to further education. 

A little later, through the kindness of friends, she spent 
a year at Hillsdale, Michigan, where the somewhat remote 
possibility of a collegiate course in the Free Will Baptist 
institution located there loomed alluringly up before her. 

This interesting year in that region, with the severe 
application to study which it witnessed, affected even her 
rugged constitution, so that at its close a severe malarial 
attack drove her eastward again. About this time (pos- 
sibly earlier) she taught a year in Killingly, Conn. In 
1873-74 she was in the High School at Danielson, though 
unable to remain until graduation. While in this school 
she was both pupil and teacher. She is said to have 
gratefully cherished through life the name of Mr. Sidney 
B. Frost, then Principal of the High School, for the kind- 
ness and devotion with which he directed her studies in 
private and gave her encouragement at this critical time 
in her history. During a portion of this period she made 
her home with Miss Mary Dexter, between herself and 
whom an intimate friendship sprang up which only 
strengthened with subsequent years — some of her latest 
letters being to this devoted friend. 

In the fall of 1878 her long-cherished hope was grati- 
fied, and she found herself actually a pupil at the famous 
"Mary Lyon's School," at South Hadley, Mass. 

16 



Sermon bg IRev. 5. Sberberne flfcatbews 

By such strict economy as may better be imagined than 
described, she managed to enjoy this mental feast through 
one school year, at the close of which it became neces- 
sary to remain out a year to earn money for the ex- 
penses of another period of study. Thus in 1879-80 she 
taught in Brooklyn, Conn., returning to Mt. Holyoke for 
1880-81. 

Such was the application of Miss Kies at Mt. Holyoke 
that she completed the four years' course in two, and 
graduated in 1881 at the head of her class — its Presi- 
dent. 

A portion of the first year after her graduation she 
spent in the service of her Alma Mater as instructor in 
Higher Mathematics and Geology. In the latter part of 
this year — that is, in the spring of 1882 — she became 
Principal's Assistant at Putnam, Conn., some eight miles 
from her birthplace. Here she continued through the 
school year 1 882-83. She came to Putnam needing 
money to complete the payment for the comfortable 
cottage which she had lately built as a home for her 
father and mother, whose farm shortly before that had 
suddenly been sold. 

Released by a considerate committee from completing 
her two years' engagement at Putnam, she accepted in 
I883 a call to Colorado College as instructor in Latin 
and Mathematics. Here she remained two years, till in 
1885 she returned to Mt. Holyoke Seminary, where for 

17 



Sermon bg IRev. 5. Sberberne dfcatbews 

six years she was instructor in Psychology and Ethics, and 
for a portion of the time acted as Seminary Principal. 

Her call to Mt. Holyoke contained permission to take 
three months for special preparation for her work. It 
was just at this juncture that, by a combination of cir- 
cumstances which she ever regarded as providential, she 
was able to avail herself of the private and friendly in- 
struction of the eminent philosopher Dr. W. T. Harris, 
then a lecturer at South Hadley, with results which appear 
in all her published work. 

From this moment till her death the name of this 
famous and kind-hearted thinker was gratefully cher- 
ished by her. It was with great joy that later, by visits 
to Concord and otherwise, she availed herself of his 
direction and aid in still further study. 

Perhaps the very brokenness of the preparation of 
Miss Kies for a broad and thorough scholarship made 
her the more anxious to undergo such tests as might be 
necessary to entitle her to a formal degree from some 
first-class institution. 

In 1888-89, while still teaching at Mt. Holyoke Semi- 
nary, she made an ingenious compilation from the widely 
scattered writings of Dr. Harris, which later she com- 
pleted and presented as a thesis at the University of 
Michigan, thereby winning from that institution in 1891, 
in addition to an M.A. already received, a Master's de- 
gree in Philosophy — having been granted three months' 

18 



Sermon b£ 1Rev» 5. Sberbcrne /Iftatbews 

absence from South Hadley for the purpose. This thesis 
she afterward used in teaching her own classes, for 
whom it really had been largely prepared, and in 1889 
it was published by the Appletons as an Introduction to 
the Study of Philosophy — a volume of nearly three hun- 
dred pages, which called out high encomiums from emi- 
nent critics, one of whom, expressing the substance of 
many, pronounced the " work so well done as to render 
the labor of the compiler hardly second in value to that 
of the author." 

Anxious to do still better work and eager for still 
further evidences of thorough equipment, she was wisely 
granted three other quarter- year periods in as many 
consecutive years for residence at Ann Arbor, during 
which time she won and received, in 1891, the first de- 
gree of Doctor of Philosophy ever conferred by the Uni- 
versity of Michigan upon a woman. 

In 1 891-92 she occupied the chair of Mental and 
Moral Philosophy in Mills College, at Oakland, Cal., to 
accept which position she resigned her instructorship at 
Mt. Holyoke. In 1892, soon after going to Mills Col- 
lege, the thesis which had won her Ph.D. at the Uni- 
versity of Michigan the year before was published by the 
Register Publishing Co., Ann Arbor, under the title, The 
Ethical Principle (pp. 131). 

1892-93 she spent in study at the Universities of Leip- 
sic and Zurich. Her readiness ever to do " the next 

19 



Sermon bg 1Rev\ 5. Sberbcrne /ifcatbews 

thing," whether most to her taste or not, is illustrated by 
the fact that upon her return from Europe she followed a 
brief period of teaching in a private school for girls at Pitts- 
field, Mass., by the acceptance of the Principalship of a 
large and difficult High School at Plymouth, that State. 

This work was not without its appeal to the heroic in 
her, — an appeal to which she ever responded. 

Here with marked success and real enjoyment she 
continued till a heavy cold contracted in that notoriously 
trying climate marked the commencement of that dread 
disease which has been called " New England's curse " ; 
a disease toward which there were hereditary tendencies 
on her father's side, which insidious disease never failed 
to gnaw at her vitals till the inevitable end. 

While resident at Plymouth she brought out in 1894 
her third work, Institutional Ethics, published by Allyn 
& Bacon, Boston (pp. 273). 

In 1896, by the orders of her physician, and pos- 
sessed of a cough which alarmed her thoughtful friends — 
but not her — she resigned the Plymouth position to 
accept the chair of English Literature in Butler College, 
University of Indiana. Here in steadily failing health — 
as is now remembered — she taught for three years, till 
Thursday the 22d of June last. 

Forced at length to recognize the presence of some 
serious peril to her health, she had accepted the kind and 
generous invitation of her valued relatives and friends, 

20 



Sermon bg 1Re\>. S Sberberne /Ifcatbews 

Mr. and Mrs. Edwin W. Davis, to spend the summer in 
their beautiful home in Pueblo, Col, in the hope that 
the life-giving ozone of that far-famed region might 
rebuild her shattered constitution. 

Here surrounded by every material comfort that devoted 
hearts could lavish upon her, having with characteristic 
thoughtfulness made her will and settled her earthly affairs 
as far as possible two days previously, she passed peacefully 
away on Thursday, the 20th of July, 1899. 

In studying the life of Dr. Kies we see that hers was 

A MANY-SIDED LIFE. 

It is interesting to note that she possessed an attractively 
healthy and strong body. Her family physician and long- 
time friend, Dr. Rienzi Robinson, says that it had often 
seemed to him that her physique was as near absolute 
perfection as could well be conceived. She was a great 
walker and fond of out-of-door games. She was almost 
an expert golf player as many as six or more years ago, 
before that delightful, reasonable and profitable game 
reached its present high state of popularity. 

The place which physical health occupied in her own 
thought is well shown by the following statement in her 
book entitled Institutional Ethics: "The culture of the 
body goes alongside the culture of the mind. The ideal 
does not demand the exercise of the gymnasium as an end 
in itself, that the body may receive the complete develop - 

21 



Sermon bg 1Ret>. 5. Sberberne rtfcatbews 

ment demanded by Greek Art, nor the athletic strength 
that the championship of baseball, football, or boat race 
demands, but such physical culture as produces a sound 
body, that thereby greater physical and mental strength 
may be expended for the good of society.' ' 

Hers seems to have been what is sometimes called " a 
very solid" makeup, since without seeming too tall or 
" stout " she yet weighed in health a hundred and eighty 
pounds avoirdupois. 

Her physical beauty was heightened not only by the 
kindly spirit which looked out through her deep brown 
eyes, but by a wealth of hair coiled upon her finely 
shaped head — the beautiful tresses of which when un- 
coiled fell below her knees as she stood. 

" I well remember our friend when she came to us in 
the autumn of I883. The beautiful head of golden - 
brown hair, the expressive brown eyes, the clear-cut 
features, the gentle, dignified bearing, made an impression 
pleasant to recall," writes Prof. Mary F. Hatch, of Colo- 
rado University. She must have possessed not only a fine 
figure but that indefinable something which is vastly 
beyond mere physique, that combination of mind and 
matter known as " a fine presence." One of many pub- 
lished notices of her public addresses upon various themes 
preserved by her relatives or friends refers to her as 
" a lady of attractive appearance, culture, fine scholarly 
attainments, and the best literary and social tastes." 

22 



Sermon b£ IRev. 5. Sberbcme /Ifcatbews 

On another occasion an account of a great gathering, 
before which she was to read a paper on " The Ethical 
Principle in the Industrial Relation," states: "Then a 
handsome woman was introduced as Miss Marietta Kies. 
She is far from what one would expect a female professor 
to be. She was attractively dressed in a neat brown street- 
dress, and the delivery of her paper was pleasing " ! One 
gifted woman friend who had known her for many years 
says that often as Miss Kies would be leaving her, after 
some casual conversation, she would be conscious of the 
thought, " What a queenly woman goes there ! " 

" Therefore I wish that she may safely keep 
This womanhood, and change not, only grow : 
From maid to matron. Youth to age may creep, 
And a perennial blessedness still reap 
On every hand of that which she doth sow." 

This " handsome woman " possessed intellectual acu- 
men to an extraordinary degree. Hers was a healthv 
body possessed and controlled by a healthy mind. 

Her very versatility was an illustration of her acute 
intellect. With what apparent ease she passed from the 
teaching of languages, living or dead, to mathematics 
or literature, rhetoric or political economy, philosophy or 
oratory ! In them all the brilliancy of her mind shone 
forth. 

" I remember the joy with which she grasped Dr. 
Harris's interpretation of the syllogism, and the gladness 
with which, even at the cost of sleep, she reached the 

23 



Sermon by IRew 5. Sberberne /iRatbews 

answer to some perplexing question," writes an old Mt. 
Holyoke friend. 

It is well known that her favorite study was philoso- 
phy. It was as if to her thought philosophy was the 
grand solvent for nearly all the ills of life. " Philoso- 
phy," writes this girl who used to plow and to plant 
and dig potatoes in the rugged district of Mashentuck, 
" philosophy gives to the student an interpretation and 
explanation of the phases of existence which render even 
ordinary affairs of life in accordance with reason ; for the 
higher spiritual phases of life it has the power of an illu- 
mination."^ 



*" In spite of the seeming instability of the inorganic world, as seen from the 
second stage of thinking, the many unsuccessful attempts to understand all the 
processes of nature, the mass of heterogeneous opinions concerning the nature 
and object of the existence of man, and concerning the meaning of his historical 
development and the seemingly contradictory theories and schemes for the future 
improvement of the human race,— in spite of all this, rational insight knows that 
there is a true world-order ; that this order is established upon the eternal principles 
of justice and grace ; that in the great diversity there is unity, there is a purpose, 
and that pure and noble thoughts and actions contribute to the fulfillment of that 
purpose ; and that the highest vocation of man must include love and reverence for 
God and love and helpfulness to humanity. 

"As the true organic unity is seen, that is, the possible union of thoughts, 
feelings and purposes of all human hearts, there is a basis for rational action ; for 
action that shall, in directly improving a part of the organism, at least not destroy 
the well being of any part. The person whose underlying purpose in all the ways 
of life is to help and uplift humanity will be filled with heavenly emotions, with ' the 
love that exalteth and maketh not ashamed.' " — Institutional Ethics, page xvi. 

"To a comparatively few minds in' the history of thought, it has been granted 
to stand upon the mountain top and to gaze upon truth in its perfection. The 
thousand eager questionings, ' What is truth? ' do not disturb such a mind. 
Amidst changing opinions and shifting scenes, the eternal truth stands out clear and 
strong, and begets peace and a calm joy. Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Hegel, are names 
that suggest this philosophic insight in as perfect a degree as the world has yet 

24 



Sermon bg IRev. 5. Sberberne /Iftatbews 

Her intellectual acumen comes to view in all her pub- 
lished works — whether it be that skillful presentation and 
interpretation of the modified Hegelian philosophy as it 
appears in the recondite teaching of the distinguished edi- 
tor of The Journal of Speculative Philosophy, or in The 
Ethical Principle, or in Institutional Ethics, in both of 
which latter she undertakes to expose to view that two- 
sided fundamental ethical principle which she conceives 
as embodying within itself both justice and grace, and 
proceeds to show its application to the Individual, the 
Family, the School, the State and the Church — as she 
herself thinks her way along toward that distinctively 
Christian Socialism for whose prevalence in the earth she 
earnestly looked and ever prayed. 

Of her first published work, The Introduction to the 
Study of Philosophy, the Public School Journal of Illi- 
nois said in 1890, " No man of modern times has written 
so plainly and so simply of the most profound things in 
the universe ; " and then adds the significant words, " The 
rapidly increasing number of young people, and those not 



seen. Each one may strive to grasp the truth as seen by these great minds, and 
perhaps add new insights to the phases of truth already discovered, and thus be 
sharers in the same kind of emotions."— Idem, page xvii. 



"Since man has before him an ideal of absolute truth, beauty and goodness 
which he may progressively realize, an evil which annuls the results of previous 
right thoughts and acts, is a disintegrating force in the individual and in the 
organic unity, and tends to disorder and ruin. Thus, as sin or selfishness renders 
impossible the true growth of the individual, so the true substantial freedom, or 
growth of society, can be realized only as the wills of its members are determining 
in holiness and righteousness." — Idem, page xix. 

25 



Sermon bg IRew 5. Sberbcrne flbatbews 

so young, who are looking for some intellectual basis on 
which to stand, and from which to study their relations 
to God and to man, will hail with joy this book as a 
revelation." 

Institutional Ethics starts with the conception of " the 
self as a human mind giving a clue to the ultimate 
principles of the universe in its process of creation and 
growth." These ultimate principles are two, Justice and 
Grace. Upon examination these two are found to resolve 
themselves into a single twofold ethical principle. 

" Justice is an exaction of what is due to the self, be it 
a thing, an animal or a person. Grace is the giving of 
that which is one's own — the giving of the self for the 
sake of another." 

"These two principles are complementary, the one to 
the other, in a sense that the processes indicated by them 
are sufficient in their infinite forms of manifestation when 
interpreted to offer a reasonable explanation of all phases 
of existence and life in its various forms of combinations 
and institutions." 

Illustrated in all the inanimate world, " it is in man 
that we find exemplification and revelation of the princi- 
ples of justice and grace. As a child, the acts of a child 
are returned upon him by the will of judicious parents. 
But as a being who has reached the stage of self-conscious 
intelligence, there is a continual process of return unto 
the self. Every thought, feeling and act shall come back 

26 



Sermon by IRev. 5. Sbcrberne flfcatbews 

n its own power, at some time, to contribute to the 
process of change and degeneration, or to the process of 
change and growth and development of the individual 
soul. In this process of self-determination, justice is the 
fundamental principle. Justice exacts its own. Think, 
feel, do, and thou shalt receive the like in kind ; nothing 
better, nothing worse. This process is the very basis of 
individuality; the individuality, the activity, that can 
never be destroyed." 

" What is this process of change ? How does man 
grow ? By repetition of the eternal process, by self- 
sacrifice." 

" This process of yielding is the process of making, and 
man in thus giving up his selfish interests and desires for 
the interests of others only gives up a phase of finitude, 
and at each succeeding step enters more and more into 
the nature of infinite thought and infinite love." 

The book is a most interesting effort to show that the 
application of this twofold ethical principle — which is 
really the Golden Rule of Jesus— not only to the indi- 
vidual but to the institutions of the family, the state and 
the church — is the only road to that ultimate perfection 
toward which the whole creation moves. 

Of this Institutional Ethics one reviewer wrote : " The 
book is learned, worthy of Catharine Beecher in her 
best days,"— that Catharine Beecher of whom her great 

27 



Sermon b£ IRev. 5. Sberberne flfcatbews 

father, Dr. Lyman, used to say that " of all his brainy 
children he had the most respect for the intellect and opin- 
ion of Catharine." 

In a letter to me a few days since, one who has long 
been recognized as one of the very foremost of American 
philosophers, the present distinguished U. S. Commis- 
sioner of Education, Wm. T. Harris, LL.D., writing from 
Washington, says: " For some years she devoted her 
attention to questions of sociology and the philosophy of 
law. Her published volume resulting from these studies 
is a valuable work, one of the most thoughtful in the 
English language on that subject." 

He then adds the statement that "throughout all her 
writings she endeavored to find the deepest thought of 
civilization, the underlying thought of a Christian civi- 
lisation, and I think that her success was remarkable." 
He expresses his deep regret at her death, and adds, " For 
many years she has been one of the profoundest thinkers 
among my acquaintances." 

" For of all moral virtues 
She was all 
That ethics speak of virtues cardinal." 

This woman of extraordinary intellect had unusual 
courage. This trait was exhibited through all her life. 
As a girl and later she used often to walk the lonely road, 
much of the way through houseless woods, two good miles 
or more, at nine or ten o'clock at night, from Danielson to 

28 



Sermon bg tRev* S. Sberbecne dftatbews 

her own home in Mashentuck. Once when a friend pro- 
tested against her thus exposing herself to peril, she took 
the matter lightly, and seemed wholly unable to see why 
she should not thus take the lonely walk when necessary. 
She seemed utterly devoid of fear. Waking from sound 
sleep to find the college buildings on fire one bitter winter 
night, while teaching in Colorado College, she sprang from 
her bed and ran three blocks in nightdress and bare feet to 
give the alarm and help save what might be saved. 

That this trait was inwrought into the fiber of her 
mind and soul and was not a mere physical characteristic 
came to view when, being interfered with because her 
thought was too broad for the narrow limits prescribed by 
a certain small but " influential" person connected with 
one of the institutions in which for a time she taught, she 
relinquished her professorship (against the protest of the 
trustees) that she might be free to walk the path of truth 
wherever God might reveal it to her earnestly seeking soul. 

" Thou art the called, 
The rest admitted with thee." 

After what has been said one hardly need add that this 
courageous woman was also a notably industrious 
woman. 

The girl who at fourteen years of age was familiar with 
all kinds of household and farm work, and who is remem- 
bered as having always had a book in her hand, illustrated 
this trait throughout her life. Hard work seemed a law 

29 



Sermon b£ IRew 5. Sberberne /foatbews 

of her nature. It is sad to record that she seems never to 
have learned how really to rest. 

In a notable letter from Miss Kies's dear friend, Mrs. 
Grace Julian Clarke, shortly after the death we mourn 
to-day, the writer says : " At the close of the school year, in 
June, 1898, she decided to spend the vacation here, trying 
what absolute rest would do. But such rest was not for 
her ; it was something she knew nothing of by experience, 
and so before she began to rest she felt impelled to go to 
Chicago University and see that great institution and try 
what the Lake air would do for her. There were lectures, 
of course, to be attended, and the tired nerves got no 
relaxation. Then on her return to Irvington, besides the 
five -mile trips to and from the doctor's, which must have 
consumed much energy, the fall work was to be mapped 
out, students were coming for consultation and examina- 
tion, while one or two asked for special instruction, which 
was not refused. Herself was her last thought always. 
The work of the past year was excessive, for, in addition 
to the regular duties of her department, there were inter- 
collegiate contests in oratory and debate, and she was one 
of the Faculty Committee to assist and train young men. 
The labor thus performed by her would have taxed the 
energies of a well person; for an invalid it was simply 
marvelous, and it was suicidal. After a hard day in the 
class room the hours from four to six were spent in criti- 
cising the debates ; and every holiday was given up to the 

30 



Sermon bg IRev. ©♦ Sbccberne flfcatbews 

City Library, seeking authorities and references for the 
students, so that no stone should be left unturned in the 
matter of preparing them to cope with their rivals. This 
was kept up for months, so that social pleasure had to be 
almost abandoned." " Duty first," she would say. 

Mrs. George W. Brown, Superintendent of the College 
Residence in which Dr. Kies had made her home for two 
years past, writes : " She was very faithful and did really 
more than she should, and perhaps more than she would 
have done had not the Greek Professor been too ill to do 
his work. In addition to this she had charge of the 
library work in which she volunteered to help ; also took 
his Sunday-school class of young ladies." 

This industrious woman was a teacher. I do not 
mean by this that she " kept school," or heard classes 
recite or gave lectures. One might do all these and 
know nothing about teaching. There is evidence that 
this woman had the pedagogic instinct. 

" She was a born teacher, delighting in her work, which 
was worship to her," writes her friend Mrs. Grace Julian 
Clarke. " She put into it the very best of which she 
was capable, and succeeded to an unusual degree in com- 
municating her zeal to the students and arousing their 
interest. Many of them bear hearty and grateful testi- 
mony to her wonderful power as a teacher, and to the 
personal kindness shown them in the way of help and 
encouragement outside the class room." 

31 



Sermon bs IRev. 5. Sberbeune /ffcatbews 

Prof. Clara Stevens, of Mt. Holyoke College, writes: 
" As a scholar, Miss Kies was always looking for reasons 
and principles. A principle once hers was forever hers, 
and all the experience of life, all theories, all revelations 
of literature were illuminated by their relation to great 
principles. She had the keenest intellectual delight in 
grappling with problems, particularly those of philosophy 
and ethics. As a teacher Miss Kies was clear, broad, 
thorough. In the class room she was calm and deliberate, 
with the calmness of one who had thought out things for 
herself, and the deliberation of one who meant to help her 
students to think. She had always the respect and confi- 
dence of her students. Her thirty years of teaching, East 
and West, in the public schools of Connecticut and Massa- 
chusetts, at Mt. Holyoke, Colorado Springs, Mills and 
Butler Colleges, brought her into contact with hundreds 
of students who will remember with gratitude the strength 
of her personality, and the earnestness of her teaching." 

Her friend and fellow-teacher at Mt. Holyoke and in 
the University of Indiana, Prof. Flora Bridges, now of 
Olivet College, writes: " No teacher ever had more loyal 
students or greater power to set them thinking, and open 
their eyes to the deep and true things of life. Exceed- 
ingly fond of young people and eager to help them, she 
drew them to her whenever she appeared among them, 
and at once ; but she was at her best in the class room. 
She had a zeal for teaching beyond anyone I have known." 

32 



Sermon bg IRew 5. Sberbetne dftatbews 

Prof. Mary T. Hatch, of Colorado University, writes : 
" I well remember our friend when she came to us in the 
autumn of 188} . The beautiful head crowned with its 
wealth of golden-brown hair, the expressive brown eyes, 
the clear-cut features, the gentle, dignified bearing made 
an impression pleasant to recall. Her vigor of intellect, 
her scholarly attainments, her force of character, her tire- 
less energy, and her executive powers were gradually 
revealed as circumstances called forth their manifestation. 
Her work of whatever kind was most faithfully and 
conscientiously done. Her quiet strength, her cordial 
friendship, her intelligent and unobtrusive sympathy with 
student life, won for her in an unusual degree the per- 
fect confidence and love of the young people about her, 
and it was with genuine regret that they said good -by 
to her when she left us in June, 1885, to take up other 
work in the East." 

Prof. Ida G. Galloway, writing from Freeport, Illinois, 
says: "My acquaintance with Miss Kies began when, in 
1885, I entered Mt. Holyoke Seminary, a homesick fresh- 
man far from home; and has continued through the 
changing relations of pupil, fellow- teacher and friend. 
Her pupils always began their courses with something of 
reverential awe for her great ability and well-trained 
mind, and ended by loving her for the strong, sweet 
personality which she possessed, and under her guidance 
the most abstract subject became invested with a living 

33 



Sermon bg IRev. 5. Sbetberne ZlRatbews 

interest. I have never seen anywhere more enthusiastic 
students than those in the old lecture room at Mt. Holy- 
yoke, where Miss Kies presided like some gracious spirit, 
bringing out the over timid, and guiding the over bold 
into the safe paths of philosophic thought. We thought 
of her as the grandest possible example of Christian 
living, so dominated was she by the spirit of justice and 
love. It was not so much what she knew as what she 
was that made her influence over her pupils so strong for 
good." 

President Butler, of Butler College, University of 
Indiana, in which she taught the last three years of her 
life, writes : "As a mental force Miss Kies impressed 
herself on all with whom she came in contact. Her mind 
was keen, analytical, philosophical. But there are things 
in human character that we all hold higher. My relation 
to Miss Kies during the last few years has enabled me, 
from daily contact and observation, to judge her character. 
I found her true, just, generous, courageous, independent. 
I believe that I have never known any other teacher so 
thoroughly devoted as she to the faithful performance of 
duty. Truly these be the things that make for right- 
eousness." 

" Struggling souls by thee are lifted, 
Clouds of doubt by thee are rifted, 
Truth and falsehood by thee sifted, 
And the unattained seems nearer, 
And each mystery seemeth clearer." 

34 



Sermon bg IRew 5. Sberbecne /Iftatbews 

This gifted teacher was a person of sympathy. Her 
friend, Mrs. George W. Brown, writes from the Uni- 
versity where she last taught : " She was always interested 
in young people and their work, to encourage and aid 
them in any way she could. She was always ready to 
give extra time to any of her students who showed an 
interest and desire to progress in their work." 

" She told us how interested she was in the work and 
in the young people," writes one to whom she was 
attempting to defend herself for making such lavish 
expenditure of energy upon her pupils. 

" Intellectual companionship was very necessary to her, 
and she improved every opportunity of meeting congenial 
people," writes Miss Galloway again. 

Mrs. Clarke, in whose home she lately spent a year, 
speaks of " her strong and sunny presence." This trait 
of sympathy comes finely to view when a few days before 
her death she subjects herself to the perilous strain of 
writing from her sick bed in Pueblo a sympathetic letter 
to this same friend, Mrs. Clarke, of whose sudden afflic- 
tion she had just heard. Speaking of this Mrs. Clarke 
writes : " She herself wrote, not much, and with a feeble 
hand. She said she was gaining, but it must be slow, for 
she was so worn out, and she sympathized with me so 
sweetly, and with such sincere desire to soothe and 
comfort." And this is the one now gone from us. 



35 



Sermon b£ IRev. 5. Sberberne /Ifcatbews 

" With a cheery smile and a wave of the hand 
She has wandered into an unknown land ; 
And left us to dream how very fair 
It needs must be since she lingers there." 

But this sympathetic woman was a person of reserved 
manners. One who was her intimate friend at Mt. 
Holyoke and her fellow -teacher at Brooklyn, Conn., says : 
"She was a person of quiet, almost retiring manners, 
though always having a positive conviction to express 
upon any subject with which she was familiar when her 
opinion was asked." So marked was this modest reserve 
or shyness that superficial observers sometimes thought 
her cold. Yet she was not so. 

" Like all deep natures it was not easy for her to speak 
of those things which lay nearest her heart, and only the 
few who were dearest to her realized fully the depth and 
strength of her power of affection," writes her intimate 
friend, Miss Ida G. Galloway. 

" My own friendship for her has continued from that 
day to this, and has grown stronger with the passing 
years," writes Professor Hatch again, of Dr. Kies going to 
Colorado, in 1883. "We had the pleasure of seeing her 
here for a few days as she was on her way to California, 
and, three years ago, I had with her one memorable day 
by the sea at Plymouth. We hoped to see her here 
again, and we were shocked and grieved to hear of her 
sudden death so near us. With her it is well, and that is 
the only consolation for those who loved her." 

36 



Sermon bg 1Rev>. S. Sberbernc dfcatbews 

" Such fine reserve and noble reticence, 
Manners so kind, yet stately, such a grace 
Of tenderest courtesy." 

" Humility herself, divinely mild, 
Sublime, religious, meek and modest child." 

This reserved person was a wondrously versatile 
woman. She possessed a peculiar power of adapting her- 
self to varying and uncongenial environment. This state- 
ment is certainly illustrated in all her life. It used often 
to be said of her that she could do literally everything 
that needed to be done upon a farm, but her friend Mrs. 
Waldo remembers to have heard her say once, " No ; there 
is one thing I cannot do ! " It is to be regretted that her 
friend cannot remember what that one thing was ! 

But whether guiding a plow, or mowing grass, or 
raking hay, Maud Muller like, or planting or digging 
potatoes in old Mashentuck, or engaged in noble public 
address, or the unexpected victim of a concerted effort 
by the representatives of a different and antagonistic 
school, both of philosophy and religion, to confuse and 
overthrow this lone representative of the modified Hege- 
lian philosophy — as upon a notable occasion described in 
columns of San Francisco papers of a certain date — or 
greeting new and shy students, she is always self-poised, 
dignified, sweet and resolute. 

It is emphatically true that this versatile person was a 
religious woman. 

37 



Sermon b£ IRev. 5. Sberberne flfcatbews 

The Epistle of James teaches that true religion is a 
certain divine life possessing the soul so fully as that it 
will surely show itself in conduct. " What though a man 
say he have faith, and have not works. Can (that kind 
of) faith save him ? " " Faith without works is dead." 

In the white light of such a Scriptural test as this, the 
religion of Miss Kies but comes out the more vividly. It 
has been my joy to be told on every hand of her nota- 
ble faithfulness as a member of the Westfield Congre- 
gational Church of Danielson ever since she first began 
to worship here many years ago. What zeal she has 
exhibited by her constant attendance upon the various 
prayer meetings of the church ; what memorable prayers 
are spoken of, offered by her at the missionary meetings 
of the church; how faithful and effective has she been 
as a teacher in the Sunday school! 

" She has often helped me out by her constant readiness 
to teach a class, when present/' says Superintendent Geo. 
B. Guild. " All they say about her is true, and more/' 
"She has helped me when in her Sunday-school class," 
testify one and another man who years ago were taught 
by her. How much is involved in such constancy as this 
when home for a brief visit now and then, often surely in 
weariness and in need of rest! Her religion showed in 
her works, and this wherever she might be. One some- 
times hears of those who, though faithful at home, 
live a more lax religious life when away. Not so with 

38 



Sermon by. Kiev. 5. Sberberne /foatbews 

this gifted spirit. Mrs. Geo. W. Brown writes: ''She 
was a true, conscientious Christian if there ever was one. 
She was good to the poor and sick and fallen, and al- 
ways ready to help them with sympathy and her earn- 
ings." She was a giving Christian. She believed in and 
practiced systematic giving. 

One of the most interesting of the many tributes that 
have come to my hand concerning her is an official 
letter thoughtfully sent by the Missionary Society of the 
" Christian " Church of Irvington, Ind., that suburb of the 
beautiful city of Indianapolis to which Butler College 
recently moved, away from the crowded city. This letter 
from the hand of the Missionary Society's Secretary, Mrs. 
P. C. Jacobs, bears witness to this habit of Miss Kies, 
saying, " Not only was she a help to us by her bright 
intellect, but she gave liberally," and refers to periodical 
contributions which she had been accustomed for some 
years past to make, not only to the regular work of the 
Society, but also to a certain " Bible College " in connec- 
tion with Butler College. It also records the interesting 
circumstances that before leaving for Colorado, she paid 
her dues (her regular monthly contribution for mis- 
sionary work), to October, saying she supposed it would 
be her last missionary money in Irvington for a while. 

" I shall always cherish her memory as that of one of 
the heroes of duty, whom it was my rare good fortune to 
know, and to call my friend. It was a life given up to 

39 



Sermon b£ IRev. S. Sberbernc rtfcatbews 

good works in which was no compromise with wrong 
doing or equivocation, but only gladness and purity and 
high endeavor and unfailing devotion. Surely she be- 
longed in the company of 

" Glad souls without reproach or thought, 
Who do his will and know it not." 

" Herself was her last thought always." What wonder 
that of such a person one should write, as Mrs. Grace 
Julian Clarke of Irvington does of her, "She was a 
lovely and gifted spirit, and was a constant help and 
inspiration to me." 

This consistent Christian was a woman of affairs — a 
thrifty woman. She was strictly honorable, tactful and 
possessed of business sagacity. One who conducted busi- 
ness affairs for her during a number of years says, " She 
was a born financier." Earning her own living, and win- 
ning her own way in the world from the time she was 
fourteen years of age, she lived a life of benevolence, 
built a house for her father and mother, and at her death 
left an accumulation of some thousands of dollars for 
the comfort of those whose names were written on her 
heart. 

Finally, this woman of affairs was a wondrously per- 
sistent woman. In fact this trait of persistency was one 
of her most conspicuous characteristics. Mrs. Augustus 
Bassett says that the well-known intimate friendship of 
many years duration between her late daughter Annie 

40 



Sermon b£ IRew 5. Sberbcrne /Ifcatbews 

and Miss Kies really sprang from the admiration excited 
by the notable persistence which the latter exhibited in the 
face of great obstacles, when as a girl of some sixteen 
years she came to Attawaugan to teach, — one of the results 
of which persistence was that she soon became an inmate 
of their home, and entered upon a friendship which has 
often brought her back for a visit, even since the lamented 
death of Miss Bassett. Mr. Lysander Warren relates how 
when making her home under his roof while teaching 
close by in District No. 18, this girl in her teens, discover- 
ing some Latin text books in his library, seized upon 
them and during that winter mastered the rudiments of 
this rather difficult language by herself and with such 
aid as in the winter evenings this educated farmer afforded 
her out of the result of his far-away college days. Her 
family physician and valued friend from girlhood, testifies 
that of all her traits of character this impressed him the 
most. This trait was forcefully illustrated in the closing 
days of her life. Mrs. George W. Brown writes, " You 
wonder how she taught to the end of the term and then 
took the long trip to Colorado alone. I can explain it all 
in one sentence, — it was her will power and determination. 
She closed her college work on Thursday June 22. Friday 
and Saturday (23d-24th) she spent in overhauling and 
packing — not only her trunk but certain other things to be 
sent home. She finished packing Saturday afternoon, but 
the strain had proved too great for her, and at three o'clock 

41 



Sermon bs IRev. ©♦ Sberberne rtfcatbews 

on Sunday morning she had a hemorrhage of the lungs, 
the first she had ever had. With that thoughtfulness of 
others which seems to have been characteristic of her she 
suffered alone not calling for help until five o'clock. By 
this time she seemed to have lost a good deal of blood, but 
she did not think it serious, and did not seem to be excited or 
nervous over it. In accordance with the physician's orders 
and her own desire, she kept perfectly quiet through Sun- 
day, seeing no one save her friend Mrs. Grace Julian Clarke, 
but seemed to rest easily and had a fairly good appetite. 
Monday morning she had me finish packing her trunk. 
(She had bought her tickets and attended to all other details 
on Saturday.)" Despite her exhausted condition "she was 
determined to carry out her plan for the summer, and to 
go to Pueblo without further delay, hoping to be soon 
benefited by the change of climate." Such was the 
power of mind over matter that "she did not seem so 
very tired as one would have expected." 

Mrs. Edwin W. Davis, the kind and attentive relative 
and friend under whose hospitable roof Dr. Kies' last 
days were spent, writes from Pueblo, " It is a wonder to 
us and to the physician here how it was possible for her 
to keep up and hear her classes as she did, and then 
endure her journey here." 

Such are some of the prominent characteristics of one 
woman friend who has lately been called from our church 
fellowship to Heaven. 

42 



Sermon b£ Utev. 5. Sberberne rt&atbewe 

I have spoken long and yet am conscious of having 
spoken all inadequately. It is difficult to convey an 
accurate conception of such a character. There is a sense 
in which a human life is more than the sum of its recog- 
nized or recognizable parts. " It was not so much what 
she knew as what she was that made her influence over 
her pupils so strong for good." That is a suggestive 
sentence of Miss Galloway's. 

Lately I asked several friends who had known Dr. Kies 
amid varying circumstances for many years what was the 
thing which impressed them most as they knew her. 
These friends, ignorant that the question was being asked 
of more than one, replied as follows: Mr. Lysander 
Warren said, "her remarkable memory and her persist- 
ency " ; her family physician, " not her magnificent physique, 
including her almost perfect health till fatal disease seized 
her, but her wondrous persistency" ; two others said, " her 
persistency " ; two others, " her retiring manner, and her 
modesty in whatever she undertook " ; another, " perhaps 
her modesty, but I should say her whole life. She seemed 
strong every way. She carefully planned everything." 

Endowed with such gifts it is hard to believe that she 
ought to have gone out of life so early. It will seem to 
many that she ought more carefully to have guarded and 
conserved for future years the splendid energy which was 
entrusted to her care. Is there not here a lesson for many ? 
It is certainly pathetic that the voice of one possessed of 

43 



Sermon bs IRev. 5. Sbccberne d&atbews 

such exceptional physical and mental gifts should be 
hushed so early. It is hard to see such splendid strength 
fail. But there came a day when it did fail. Yet it 
seemed all unexpected to her. So many times she had 
rallied by sheer force of will that she seemed to think she 
could do it indefinitely. 

In a letter written to Miss Emily Danielson a few days 
before the end of her last term of teaching, and exactly a 
month before her death, this courageous and versatile 
woman, whose splendid energy had so often illustrated 
itself in accomplishing marvelous things upon the old 
farm at Mashentuck, as later in both American and Euro- 
pean Universities ; this remarkable woman whose class 
room had been her throne, this " born teacher " writes, in 
the increasing weakness which had so long been drawing 
on : " The quiet (of her expected visit in the home of 
Mr. and Mrs. Davis at Pueblo) is just what I need, and 
after the endless questions which students like to ask, it 
will be very good to let the tired nerves have time to 
become invigorated." 

What could be more pathetic than for this woman — 
whose chief delight had ever been to incite her pupils to 
inquire after truth — to be impelled to speak of her " tired 
nerves," and of " the endless questions " as a burden to 
her ever willing spirit ? Though unconsciously to her it 
was the prophecy of the hastening end. Upon reaching 
Pueblo the week following, and being helped up stairs to 

44 



Sermon b£ IRev. 5. Sberberne jflfcatbews 

bed, she utters an exclamation of delight at the comfort 
of her luxurious surroundings, and two weeks later passes 
to her long rest, asleep in Jesus. 

The closing chapter of one of her books is devoted to 
an elaboration of her conception of the truth about 
Immortality. To her the very doctrine of evolution, 
including the conflict involved in the doctrine of the 
Survival of the Fittest, all pointed one way. She believed 
that at length when the grand consummation toward 
which the whole creation moves shall be reached it will 
appear that Mind is the one survivor ; that then and only 
then is it that the real career of the soul begins. 

In her Institutional Ethics she says, " And since in the 
very individuality of the person, there is the power to 
resist the environment, or make it subservient to the self, 
a capability of persistence under change, and at the same 
time a capability to so react upon the self that the self is 
thereby self produced, what is there to indicate that this 
process of self making ever ceases? And if the indi- 
vidual makes himself, and if there are before him infinite 
possibilities of development, why do not these very facts 
presuppose the immortality of the individual, and also 
presuppose the truth that the history of institutions of 
society is a record of the beginning of an eternal process 
of development? 

" The changes produced by the practical application of 
the ethical principle show a progressive realization, whose 

45 



Sermon bg 1Rex>. 5. Sberberne flfcatbewe 

consummation can only be reached in infinite time. We 
have seen that justice is the fundamental principle of ex- 
istence, and that self-sacrifice is, in a complimentary 
way, the principle of growth. Man makes his own deeds. 
Since these deeds are the result of a self-constraint of 
freedom, they react upon the originator. The deeds of 
an individual come back to him." 

Our friend has entered upon the immortal life. A fol- 
lower of, and a profound believer in, Him who said, " I 
am the Resurrection and the Life — he that believeth in 
me shall never die;" who said again, "I go to prepare 
a place for you that where I am there shall ye be also " 
— a follower of this Jesus who hath brought life and 
immortality to light for the individual and the race 
Marietta Kies has gone to her reward. 

In a letter to her sister, Mrs. Arnold, shortly before the 
end she speaks of the belief of some that she could not 
rally. The substance of the whole letter is that she is 
willing of course to have God's will done concerning her, 
but it does not seem to her that her work in the world 
is done yet, and hence that she shall make a fight for 
life as she had so often successfully done before. 

"Man proposes but God disposes." Yet how often 
real victory comes through apparent failure ! She passed 
out of the lower into the higher life. Ah sainted friend, 
we watched with tearful interest thy noble conflict. And 
how nobly hast thou really won success ! 

46 



Sermon b£ IRev. 5. Sberberne d&atbews 

I think all who have really known this remarkable 
woman can well adopt the language of her friend Mrs. 
Clarke, " In looking over the character and career of this 
dear friend who has gone before us, we see so much to 
be thankful for, and such prophecy of the unfolding and 
maturing of great powers that we can only thank God 
and bow our heads reverently." 

Surely while she rests from her labors her works do 
follow her. A fellow teacher well says, — " She has gone 
to her reward, after proving most abundantly that life 
was real and earnest, and in hundreds of loyal hearts 
there is sorrow, but her life is lived on in the lives of 
those who were moulded and shaped by her influence/' 
Thus her works do follow her. 

In studying the career of Miss Kies we see how much 
better is a life of honest toil amid the beauties and health- 
giving employments of a quiet country home with oppor- 
tunities for reflection which such a life affords, than is the 
artificial life of the modern city. 

We get a striking view of the dignity and greatness of 
free agency and the power of a human soul to decide its 
own destiny. Here is a girl scarcely in her teens who in- 
stead of mourning over her unfriendly environment resolves 
to make an environment adapted to her needs. Instead of 
weeping because she has no money, she proceeds to earn 
money. Thus ever looking far ahead she chooses her goal 
and gives herself no rest till that goal is reached. 

47 



Sermon b£ IRev. 5. Sbecbcrnc /Iftatbews 

In a brilliant passage in her Institutional Ethics (p. 20) 
occur these words : " Even the inherent or inherited ten- 
dencies cannot determine the life of an individual or 
of a nation. The activity of the Substantial Will, or 
thought, can make its own motives." And what is this 
but the verbal expression of one of the deepest principles 
by which her own life was ever shaped ? 

Surely after Marietta Kies has lived her life among us 
and won her victories, no boy or girl in the Borough of 
Danielson or the town of Killingly can ever hesitate 
because of obstacles to determine upon securing a liberal 
education; no parent can cease to be thankful for the 
coming of children into the home ; no town can fail to 
rejoice in the privilege of expending money for schools 
to educate its youth ; no church can be unmindful of its 
young people; no New England community can forget 
the blessings of true religion. 

Reverently and with tears we look into this white face 
so lately lying in its casket before us, and despite our 
pain thank God for that which was, which is, and which 
is to be. 

Folded, her hands in silence lie, 
Severed is every earthly tie ; 
Lonely my heart breathes out a cry. 

Turneth my thoughts to unselfish things, 
She hath found rest from her wanderings — 
Rested, rejoicing she gladly sings. 



48 



Sermon b£ IRev. 5. Sberbetne /Iftatbews 

Weary in search of knowledge fair, 
Weary of roaming everywhere, 
Weary— yes even her courage rare 

Was weary of earthly cares and frets, 
Proudly, she never showed regrets, 
Suffered alone— now she forgets. 

God's love like a river swift and strong, 
Her soul on its bosom bears along 
As a bird rests lightly before her song. 

Then straight to the throne she takes her flight, 

Reposeful, she rests in God's holy might, 

In the bosom of God she is hidden from sight. 

" And I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me, 
Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from 
henceforth : Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from 
their labours; and their works do follow them." 



49 



"While, to the majority of people, philosophy, art, and poetry are understood; 
seen, and thought through the medium of greater minds, in the realm of goodness, 
though perhaps not in the list of the world's heroes and martyrs, it is granted to all 
to become self- creators. The sympathy that shall go out in loving helpfulness to 
even the meanest and lowest of humanity shall return to the soul in a holy joy, a 
blessedness such as only the ' poor in spirit' can receive."— Institutional Ethics , 
page 18. 

" Even the inherent or inherited tendencies cannot determine the life of an 
individual, or of a nation. The activity of a substantial will or thought can make 
its own motives. Circumstances, ancestry, antecedent thoughts influence, but do 
not control, the will. While it may take a long time for the formal will to act in a 
new direction determined upon by the substantial will, yet the energizing of the free 
substantial will may, in a moment of time, create a thought which may destroy a 
habit of years' standing." — Ibid., page 20. 

" A few decades even show changes in the application of the ethical rule. The 
' higher education ' of woman shows this process. Largely due to the struggles, 
trials, and self-sacrifice of a few heroic women in the early part of the present 
century, the general sentiment of the country and the world is undergoing a change 
in reference to the intellectual ability of woman. All changes may not indicate 
ethical progress; but any education for woman, however advanced, that does not 
change the direction of development of those inherently woman characteristics 
which have and do bless the world, must be ethical in its tendencies."— Ibid., 
page 31. 



flfcemortal Hfcfcress 



of 



IRev. Mm. G. patcbell 



at tbe 



ffuneral Service in pueblo, Colorado 
3fri0a^ t Suls 21, 1899 



"A sin is the determination to make a lower motive when the possibility of 
taking a higher is seen. A sin is, therefore, 'a substitution of self for God,' an 
ignoring of the possibility of realizing more completely the divine idea!. A sinful 
thought thus becomes a barrier to the recipiency of divine grace, and the mind 
voluntarily shuts the avenues of communion, and thus the possibility of receiving 
divine influence, revealed and transmitted through nature, books, and contact with 
other human souls. The results of a sin and a vice may be equally destructive to 
human society, and the effects, as returned from society upon the doer, may be 
similar ; but purity of motives frees the individual from immediate responsibility and 
from remorse, but not necessarily from regret, for mistakes of judgment in inter- 
preting a given set of social relations and the kinds of acts demanded thereby " — 
Institutional Ethics, page 38. 

"Since man has before him an ideal of absolute truth, beauty, and goodness« 
which he may progressively realize, an evil will which annuls the results of previous 
right thoughts and acts, is a disintegrating force in the individual and in the organic 
unity, and tends to disorder and ruin. Thus, as sin or selfishness renders impos- 
sible the true growth of the individual, so the true substantial freedom, or growth 
of society, can be realized only as the wills of its members are determining in holi- 
ness and righteousness." — Ibid., page iq. 

" The process of change and development going on in all around is seen to be 
not simply a change from lower to higher, but a change, an eternal process, in which 
the evolution is not by the unaided power of the lower becoming the higher, but an 
evolution in which the highest is continually manifested and revealed in all created 
things from the lowest object up to man. Man, as developing in freedom in the 
organic unity of society, is seen as an adequate revelation of the Creator." — 
Ibid., page 13. 



52 



B&fcress b£ 1Re\>, Mm. XL. patcbell. 

* 

We are called here together to-day by an impulse that 
lies deepest in the human heart. Although strangers to 
each other there is in this occasion that which makes us 
one. We are in the presence of death, — the death that 
makes life beautiful and dignified, that spreads its maj- 
esty and beauty over all experience and makes us of one 
kin, — and I am certain that it is in no perfunctory spirit 
that we gather here to-day. 

Our thoughts go out across the wide prairies, across 
the rivers, across the mountains to that lone mother 
sitting in sorrow to-day, wondering into whose hands has 
fallen the care of her loved one. She looks out across 
the wide distances to the far-distant country, and her heart 
goes out in deep love and tenderness, in deep anxiety 
toward this one in whose name we come together to-day. 
And I am sure that we all together feel that in some 
measure, at least, we represent this mother and the dear 
ones left behind. I am sure that we come with this feel- 
ing deep in our hearts; that we come in tenderness 
and gentleness, and in sympathy and in love. 

And thus, too, as I read the story of this woman's life, 
and as I realize that through the long years she has been 
giving of herself, of her personality, to scores and hun- 

53 



BDDress b£ 1Rev>. 7KHm. XT. patcbell 

dreds of students who have gone out into life ; who have 
gone out to live the great life that lay before them, to 
battle, to conquer, to accomplish; who have gone out 
in the strength that she has given them, the strength of 
her own rare, deep nature, — I feel, too, that we represent 
them— this great cloud of witnesses into whose lives have 
gone this life, and who in turn, could they but know that 
to-day she was here lying in death, would give her their 
love and their sympathy. 

And thus we come feeling deeply and tenderly the 
great responsibility of the hour, the deep sacredness of 
it all, and in the sense of human brotherhood that draws 
us thus close together, we bring for them and this dear 
one what we have. 

It has been my rare pleasure to learn something of 
this woman's life through the story of the work that 
she has wrought. 

She has published her own works ; she has spoken in 
the name of one other. The list of her works are " An 
Introduction to the Study of Philosophy," in which she 
gathers together the thoughts and scattered writings of 
Dr. W. T. Harris ; " The Principles of Ethics," her first 
work ; and " Institutional Ethics," in which she has taken 
two fundamental thoughts of life, Justice and Charity, and 
has striven to apply them to the practical affairs of life. 

There is nothing in these critiques of her work that 
is of herself. There is no spoken word of herself, no 

54 



B&Dress b£ 1Re\>. Mm, U. patcbell 

expressed thought; and yet, looking through these crit- 
iques, one easily recognizes the spirit that lies behind. 
One recognizes that in her we come face to face with 
the very incarnation of the " strenuous life " ; one who 
has lived but for helpfulness ; one who has believed in 
the loftiest things ; one who has laid hold of the grandest 
ideals, and who, not content with this alone, has deter- 
mined to bring them down and apply them to human 
life and human experience, determined that the beautiful 
things of God and His being should find expression in our 
commoner life. 

This was her passion, — to live the truth and beauty 
of God into human experience. This was her strenuous 
hope, this her lofty ideal, that she in the fullest possible 
measure should live out into the world all the truth and 
beauty that she could apprehend. 

Dying at the age of forty -five, we find that for thirty 
years she has been identified with the higher education 
of our country as a philosopher, as a teacher; never at 
all inclined to hide away in the shadows of the study 
and for herself alone gain the beautiful things, but sim- 
ply reaching out after these things that she might in 
turn live them out into life. And who shall say that 
her life has not been the grandest success of all; for 
this woman has lived, because she has expressed herself ; 
because she has imposed her personality upon life; be- 
cause she has thrown herself wholly into the stream of 

55 



agrees b£ IRew *<K!lm. Z. IPatcbell 

life and experience, and has given her all, and in turn 
she has found herself. 

I cannot but recall in thinking of her life that strange 
piece of statuary found in the Art Institute at Chicago. 
It is one of French's master-pieces, — a young man stand- 
ing in the full flush and vigor of his royal manhood. 
He is a sculptor, and his right hand is raised to strike a 
blow on the chisel in his left hand, and he is carving 
out the Sphinx for himself, — for himself in the joy and 
pride of youth, with all his energy, with all his lofty 
aspirations, with his determination to carve out the an- 
swer, determined to wrest the meaning of life for himself. 
And, lo, as he thus stands in the midst of his labors a hand 
is laid upon his shoulder ; he turns his head, and it is Death 
standing, shadowy, mysterious, but not in anger, simply bid- 
ding him come. In his eyes are a deep, vague questioning, 
a moment of great uncertainty, and then there comes to him 
subtly, strangely, that this is not death, but this is life ; that 
all these strong, beautiful faculties, that all these aspirations, 
that all these powers are not now to end, but are now really 
to begin, and so he leaves his work to go up higher. 

So, too, it is with this one around whose bier we 
gather to-day. At the very culmination of her powers, 
with all her life processes in full operation, in the radi- 
ance of the strength of her full womanhood, she was 
but prepared to live, and her heart was aflame with the 
desire to live. Her mind teemed with great plans and 

56 



Bfcfcress b£ IRew mm, XZ. ipatcbell 

projects, with great, beautiful thoughts and dreams, that 
she should draw to a concrete issue in life. 

And lo, to her the messenger came, but again not in 
anger. O friends, not in anger was she called away, 
not that all these beautiful dreams should be quenched, 
not that these strenuous activities should come to an 
end; but believing in her God and in her Saviour, be- 
lieving in her hope for an immortal life, we know to-day 
that she has been called simply to a higher sphere of 
usefulness, where all this life shall go on unquenched, 
finding expression in a fuller measure, even as she has 
ever longed for it. 

And thus to-day, in tenderness and in deep sympathy, 
we strive to express what is in our hearts, rendering it 
to the distant mother, to the sisters so far away, to the 
young people who have gone out into life from this 
woman, rendering it to God. 



57 



"No principle less than the Golden Rule is comprehensive enough to express 
the faith, hope, and love of the human soul. Love, as representing the celestial 
virtues, is an emotion sufficient to prompt the exercise of all the cardinal virtues ; 
but the cardinal virtues do not necessarily include the celestial. Faith, hope, and 
love in man reveal the fundamental thought of the universe. The explanation of 
their nature involves an explanation of all the thought of relationship to God. . . . 
But God, the Father, in His own self-creation, creates also the Son, an eternal 
process of giving up self, so that the Son, in recognition of His perfection and 
of His derivation from the Father, creates the Third Person, the Holy Spirit, mani- 
fested and revealed in the world of finite beings. This evolution of finite beings 
can be studied historically only as it has taken place upon our planet, the earth ; 
but the ' Heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth His 
handiwork.' . . . But philosophical thought sees the necessity of evolution as a 
process of self-creation that is fundamental to the stage of ' scientific evolution ' ; 
for God is a Spirit, a Personality, and no theory of ' life-evolution ' alone can 
account for 'Spirit-evolution.' And the divine altruism, made evident from the 
beginning in the creative process, is revealed in and through the thought and will 
of human beings in their attempts to secure their own self-development in the 
exercise of this same principle, the altruistic. . . . While the thought is centered 
in self the pride of such a heart prevents the reception of holy influences, and 
there can be no giving nor receiving, and such an attitude takes away all possi- 
bility of growth."— Institutional Ethics, page 51. 



58 



IResolutions ot ffacults ot Butler College, 

University of Indiana, Irvington, Ind. 

The faculty of Butler College desires to express to the relatives and 
friends of Miss Marietta Kies its deep sympathy with them in their 
sorrow for her death. We wish to speak our appreciation of her and 
to spread the same upon our minutes. She was a woman of the 
highest Christian character, a teacher of ability and energy, and as 
such she won the respect and friendship of those who were asso- 
ciated with her. She was an inspiration to the young women of the 
college and a constant aid to her students. 

Omar Wilson, 

Sec. Faculty. 



59 



"The attitude of independence that woman is enabled to hold, because of her 
educational and industrial emancipation, changes necessarily the relations of 
husband and wife. . . . Whatever may be the theorizing on the subject, and the 
fears of the influence of industrial equality and possible ambition for personal 
aggrandizement on the pirt of woman, no amount of education will keep a 
woman from loving the man who approaches her ideal in his intellectual and spir- 
itual qualities. And a marriage, based upon a corresponding degree of develop- 
ment in the masculine and feminine mind, can but give an opportunity for an 
exemplification of a higher ethical principle than that based upon obedience and 
servitude, or upon self-interest and the desire for material prosperity. And if 
circumstances do not bring together the co-ordinately developed man and woman 
into the marriage union, the women of education, instead of becoming cross and 
sour ' old maids,' become important productive factors in the industrial world, and 
by entering in full sympathy into the varied relations, — industrial, educational, 
religious, and social,— of society, assist in bringing society to the realization of a 
higher ideal than would have been possible as uneducated women." — Institu- 
tional Ethics, pages 83, 84. 

" Divine Love as manifested and revealed in the only begotten Son, expressed 
through the Holy Spirit in the souls of all human beings makes possible the 
Invisible Church. Whether all souls consciously participate in the thought and 
activity of this Invisible Church depends upon the attitude and choice of the 
individual. Every human being by virtue of his birthright is a son of God and 
has the seal of God's love and mercy, and only as the individual voluntarily places 
himself in hell, by closing his thoughts and affections to divine influences, does 
he cease to be a member of the Invisible Church. ' The kingdom of heaven is 
within you ' "—Ibid., page 2bq. 



60 



•Resolutions of tbe ^Boston tot. Ibolpofte 
Hlumn^e association. 



Miss Marietta Kies died in Pueblo, Colorado, June 20, 1899. 

Since God, in his infinite wisdom, has called into the higher life 
our beloved sister, it is fitting that we place on the records of this 
Association, of which she was a loved and honored member, some 
tribute to the noble life whose loss we so deeply mourn. Some 
have lost a classmate, some a teacher, all a friend. For seven years 
Miss Kies was teacher of Psychology and Ethics at Mt. Holyoke 
College. Those of us who were under her instruction realize that 
earth has lost a rare and beautiful soul. With tender gratitude we 
remember the deep sincerity, the earnest purpose, the clear insight, 
the breadth of view that characterized her teaching. She taught us 
the worth of character, the nobility of life, the beauty of right doing. 
She inspired us with love of truth, justice, and humanity. To her 
every human soul was a wealth of possibilities, wherein to discover 
latent powers, and rouse them into activity. Many a life to-day 
bears the impress of her teaching, and now that she has left us for 
the higher service let us endeavor to pass on to others what she gave 
to us. Thus shall the influence of her noble life go on in ever- 
widening circles. 

Whereas, We, the members of this Association, realize the depth 
o our loss in the removal of our loved and valued associate, be it 
therefore 

Resolved, That a copy of this expression of our regard be placed 
on the records of this society ; and be it further 

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions, together with our 
heartfelt sympathies, be sent to the bereaved mother and sister, also 
our sister, in the bonds of Holyoke fellowship. 

Mary Perle Anderson, 

For the Boston Mt. Holyoke Alumna Association. 
Boston, November 18, 1899. 

61 



" The religion established by Christ is essentially an ethical religion."— Insti- 
tutional Ethics, page 257. 

" ' The question of temperance ' may also be taken as an illustration. While 
there is much opportunity for a difference of opinion as to the means that have 
been used to bring about a higher ideal of what constitutes a subjection of the 
physical wants to the will, yet no one can doubt but that, on this question, a 
higher sentiment exists to-day than existed fifty years ago."— I bid., pages 31, 32. 

" But if the tendency of the State is to express more of the altruistic spirit in 
its laws and the tendency of the Church is to conform more nearly to justice, will 
the State and the Church of the future show even as diverse aspects as at present? 
Not that the organization and government of the State and the Church will 
become identical, but each having its own kind of government, may not the spirit 
of one so interpenetrate the spirit of the other, that the New Jerusalem, the heav- 
enly city, will be inform the Nation of nations, but in spirit the City of our God, 
in which there shall be a consummation and fulfillment of many tendencies that 
now are seen only in their beginnings? The processes of the development of 
spirit are slow, but nevertheless sure, and all the institutions of society express 
and reflect the gradual unfolding of the World-Spirit as it receives its gradual 
expression in the more complete exemplification of the golden rule given to sin- 
ning humanity by a perfect Christ." — Ibid., page 270. 



62 



/l&arietta ikies, lpb»2). 

Died in Pueblo, Col., July 20, 1899. 



How still and white she lies 

After her journey long, 
Helpless the folded hands 

That once were firm and strong. 

Here in her childhood home, 

As seemeth meet and best, 
'Mid scenes she knew and loved 

She comes for dreamless rest. 

The fount of knowledge still 

With earnest zeal she sought, 
And of her gain to give 

To others bravely wrought. 

Now to a higher school, 

Heaven's university, 
She goes where God, Himself, 

Gives standing and degree. 

With thirst for knowledge slaked 

In His unfathomed sea, 
She " knows as she is known " 

Through all eternity. 

Over her early grave 

The summer rain shall weep, 
And angels have their charge, 

A " watch and ward" to keep. 

C. H. N. Thomas. 



63 



*' The Church in its most recent methods of working; shows in like manner this 
spirit of development in the lines of applied Christianity. No longer bound by 
certain prescribed rules for the way of using' God's House,' the Church applies 
practically in the nature of its gatherings the principles of social and Christian 
unity. ' Conversion ' is no longer regarded as the only act necessary. ' Growth 
in grace and in the knowledge of divine truth' wherever found is now considered 
the continuance of the first important step of a new and higher life. Degraded 
tastes, appetites and tendencies must be made over, and the process demands time, 
and to meet these necessities of weak human nature the Church has come to 
acknowledge that the process of growth may demand various steps. . . . The 
children and young people must be given something of an entertaining and profit- 
able character to do, or idle hours and repressive restrictions will result in vicious 
acts and habits. The Church has learned that the Puritan ideas of long sermons 
and few relaxations from stern and strict surveillance do not fit so well the changed 
thought and customs of a time of comparative material prosperity and leisure from 
arduous toil as they did in the early days of our country ; and it has learned that, 
unless the Church encourages the establishment of means for the harmless grati- 
fication of the desire for amusement, -agencies of a doubtful character will secure 
the time and interest of the young people and their affections will be forever alien- 
ated from the church-home and its associations ; and also, to prevent the absorp- 
tion by young minds of thoughts from bad literature, the Church has made partial 
provision for good strong books that are true literature, to take the place of the 
older style of ' goody-goody ' Sunday-school books." — Institutional Ethics, 
pages 265, 2bb. 



64 




LATEST PICTURE OF MARIETTA KIES. 

While teaching at Butler College, University of Indiana, iS 



Marietta IKtes,— H fl&emotE* 

Prof. Georgiana Hodgkins. 

It is with a timid hand that I undertake to draw a like- 
ness that I may hold up to the world and say, " This is 
my friend." But the picture is to one so fair, as it lies 
in memory, that, lest it should be lost, duty counsels the 
attempt, and love impels. And if, when it is done, others 
beholding say, " It is not she," let the failure be charged 
not to a false impression, but to lack of skill to repro- 
duce the true one. 

It was in the fall of '88 that I first came to know Miss 
Kies. I had returned to my Alma Mater, a teacher of 
small experience to take up a new work on the old 
ground, and during the first term, through the working 
of a good Providence, there came to me the rare privi- 
lege of knowing her in the intimate relation of a room- 
mate. 

She returned, I remember, somewhat late in the opening 
term, from special work at Michigan University, where 
she was studying for her Master's degree, and the rumor of 
her profound scholarship and unusual mental attainments 
had come to me from various sources. I recall yet my 
secret anxiety on learning of the arrangements that had 
been made for us, lest she should feel disappointment at 
the fate that bound her to a stranger and, perhaps, betray 

65 



Marietta ikfes.— B Gemots 

it. I speak of it now, because this image of her that I 
had conjured out of an alarmed imagination was so ludi- 
crously false. Nothing could be so foreign to her nature 
and her habit as this thing that I had feared. I had 
yet to learn that for her to feel annoyance over so trifling 
a circumstance would have been impossible, much more 
to manifest it. 

She was then moving towards the summer of her in- 
tellectual growth. Mt. Holyoke and the Concord School 
of Philosophy and Ann Arbor and the years at Colorado 
College, with all that they had brought of mental stimu- 
lus and soul-quickening, lay behind her. She was en- 
tering into that higher plane of life and thought for which 
all this had fitted her. I am glad I knew her then, while 
yet the impulse of growth was strong upon her, before 
the summit of attainment had been touched, while the 
outlook was all forward — I am glad that then it was per- 
mitted that she should enter into my life, to that life's 
eternal enriching. 

It is still a vivid memory the way she met me, when 
somewhat timidly I entered her presence: the gracious 
poise ; the little smile running through her eyes without 
once touching her lips; that smile I came to know so 
well — the sympathetic recognition of another's personal- 
ity and rights, as flattering as rare ; it all made its impres- 
sion of large comfort and warm humanity, which, though 
added to from time to time, was never changed. 

66 



Marietta 1Kies.— B Memoes 

It is given to the strong personality to stamp itself in- 
delibly on plastic character. This gift was hers to a 
marked degree. No one ever came under her instruction 
without receiving in some measure the mark of her men- 
tality. Not that she forced her opinions. No one was so 
tolerant of the opinion of another; no one so eager to 
get that opinion into the form of its best expression — 
but, in the face of her wide sympathies and lack of preju- 
dice, narrowness became petty and intolerance narrow, 
and the outlook changed imperceptibly, unconsciously, 
but none the less absolutely, until the old horizon bounded 
no longer, and the student came into a broader view as 
his natural inheritance. 

In all my intercourse with her I never found her im- 
patient of ignorance nor intolerant of prejudice in another. 
She met them always openly, sometimes humorously, 
often seriously, never hotly. Where she found herself 
opposed either to statement or principle, she never left a 
doubt as to her own position, but formulated it with a 
frank fearlessness that was, in its very knightliness, at once 
the despair of those more given to temporizing and their 
admiration. A lover of the truth, a speaker and a doer 
of it, she made no compromise with falsehood, and at 
every touch the sterling metal of her character rang 
true. 

I never knew her to do an underhanded thing nor stoop 
to a base one. In the wearing intimacy of boarding - 

67 



Marietta Ikies— B flfcemor£ 

school life, which, more limited in its relations than the 
outside life, lends itself perhaps the more easily to petty 
intrigues and small individual ambitions, she never 
pushed a weak one to the wall to further her own ends, 
nor strove to gain an object by policy. The common 
weaknesses of women were not hers. She dwelt above 
them in an atmosphere of her own ; and when she found 
us stifled with the dust of the day's labor, and fretted 
with the grinding of unoiled wheels and the grating jar 
of conflict, she looked down at us with tender, smiling 
eyes and suddenly a free wind blew, and the horizon 
widened, and we found ourselves with her upon the hill- 
tops. 

To her, as to no other that I have known, is applicable 
the tribute that Lowell paid to Agassiz : — 

u He had a habitude of mountain air, 
He brought wide outlook where he went, 
And could on sunny uplands dwell." 

It is much to be able to say in an age of individualism 
where the " survival of the fittest " is the ruling law, " I 
have known one who never betrayed the weakness of 
another, never ground the down -trodden under foot, nor 
made merit to herself out of the failure of a neighbor." 
She was a dealer of justice. She loved fair play. 

Her coming was always an uplift. Unkind thoughts 
and mean ambitions and degrading despair died in her 
presence, and in their place sprang lofty purposes and the 

68 



Marietta Ikice — % Memory 

high hope that is accomplishment. Humanity's follies 
and ignorance and sins found in her a generous forbear- 
ance, not unlike that with which the All-kind deals with 
the frailties of his erring; and there was yet another qual- 
ity that had in it something of kinship with the Divine 
— I mean the serenity with which having sown her seed 
she could await the harvest. Hers was a comforting 
presence. She called out the best in thought and word. 
There was no room in her presence for idle gossip, and 
the worse than idle discussions by means of which too 
many of us " take up a reproach against our neighbor." 
Her own habit of thought was generous and lofty, and 
other minds felt it and woke to their best in her com- 
panionship. 

I have seen a river move with majestic sweep towards 
its outlet, gathering volume and grandeur as it rolled, 
nourishing a fruitful valley with its beneficence, and add- 
ing new glories to morning and evening splendor, yet 
unforgetful of the harebells that grew upon its banks. 
Her life was like that. No feeblest creature that touched 
it was unblessed. As the stream of EzekieFs vision it 
issued from the door of the temple, and brought health 
whithersoever it came. 

Who of her pupils can ever forget the current of the 
altruistic impulse that moved them when she repeated 
those words so manifestly the expression of her own 
principle of action : " My good reflected from all human- 

69 



Marietta Ikies.— 21 Memory 

ity. My good after their good and through their good, 
not my good before their good and instead of their 
good"? I have known other students of philosophy and 
teachers of it. I never knew one who lived it as did she. 
Nothing could shake her faith in God or humanity, noth- 
ing could move her spirit from its judicious calm. No 
one was more generous to find excuse for weakness, more 
ready to shield the ignorant from the result of blunder. 
Hypocrisy alone called out in her an undying hatred ; for 
the rest she had hope and a quick forgiveness. 

This is as I knew her in the three years at Mt. Holyoke 
and later at Mills College through an experience peculiarly 
trying to a justice-loving nature. After that she passed 
beyond my immediate ken, into the strenuous student 
life at Zurich and Leipsic, into the later labors at Plym- 
outh, Mass., and Irvington, Ind., into the shadow of the 
last great event, and now again, beyond. 

Her mental gifts were of an unusual kind. There 
seemed no intricate reasoning that she could not follow 
and join in the pursuit. Her sense was quick for the de- 
tection of weakness in an opponent's argument. She had 
her standard with her, and measured statements with an 
unerring swiftness that was baffling to one less ready. 
I recall one scene that is to me peculiarly illustrative 
of this ability. It was at a meeting of the Philosophical 
Union held in Prof. Howison's lecture-room at the Uni- 
versity of California. As a follower of Hegel, and a 

70 



/Marietta Ikies.— % flftemorg 

pupil of Dr. William T. Harris, she had been called upon 
by this Unitarian Professor to explain the position of her 
teachers on some of the more vital points of the Hege- 
lian system. She stood alone — the majority of those 
present being Prof. Howison's own pupils and therefore 
naturally of his philosophical bent. And there for a long 
session she met and parried their attack, answering, ex- 
plaining, defining, illustrating as composedly as if she 
had been in her own class-room. As I recall it, no other 
woman took part in the discussion, but men with a profes- 
sional training behind them, legal, scientific, philosophic 
— some of the keenest intellects in San Francisco and 
Oakland. 

I see her yet as she stood there under the lamplight, 
her gold-bronze hair agleam, her dark eyes glowing, her 
strongly yet delicately featured face alight with the fire of 
a roused mentality. It was a supreme moment. The city 
papers of the following day referred to her as " a Modern 
Hypatia," and spoke in warm terms of her incomparable 
defense. It is an incident that serves in a measure to 
illustrate the thoroughness of her training, and the degree 
of development to which her exceptional intellectual gifts 
had been brought. 

But even the possession of superior mental endow- 
ments would fail to account for the immense amount of 
work that in her brief time she had accomplished, had 
it not been for another quality that she encouraged in 

71 



jfflb arietta Ifcfes.— 21 fl&emorB 

herself — Method. She planned her day's work and, so 
far as it lay with herself, adhered to the plan. At a cer- 
tain hour she took up a certain duty, and moved evenly 
on in her sphere of action, never too early and never too 
late for the appointed task. It was her theory that more 
nervous energy was wasted in the effort to do without 
planning than the entire day's work required, and cer- 
tainly the results bore out her statement, for she was 
always master of her duty. It never drove her. There 
was no visible effort, no hurry, no sign of fatigue. The 
wheels were well oiled, and moved smoothly, losing noth- 
ing of their efficiency through friction, and the amount 
accomplished was simply prodigious. Yet in all this 
method there was nothing apparent of the cast-iron rigid- 
ity that might seem to be implied. If interruptions came 
from the outside, they were not merely accepted uncom- 
plainingly, they were welcomed as a part of a higher plan 
than her own, and her own work as such was cheerfully 
laid aside to give place to a more urgent need. This 
recognition of herself as an instrument in a higher plan, 
and her reverent attitude towards its revelation, made her 
life a unique example, as rare as it was beautiful. 

After all, the great are close of kin. These qualities 
that I saw in her belong to them all. They are the fam- 
ily traits by which we trace those of one blood through 
the generations. It is not strange then that she should 
have been found so free to give. The storehouse of her 

72 



Marietta Ikfes.— B Memory 

knowledge, as of her experience, was open to any chance 
inquirer. She had gathered not to hoard, but to give out. 
Others sought for her advice and help, and it was always 
ready. 

I never saw her when she seemed to be in need of 
help, or to be in any sense dependent on another. Her 
struggles, if she had them, were in secret. Her trials 
were met steadfastly and alone, so far as human help 
availed. She never brought them forth to burden others. 

It may well be that when physical infirmity grew on 
her at the last, she turned to human sympathy for com- 
fort — I do not know — but as I knew her she was a strong 
support amid a world of leaners. And so I must always 
think of her ; and yet there was nothing briery nor ag- 
gressive in her independence, it was helpful, modest and 
loving. 

With all the rest, she had the saving sense of humor. 
She was not one to create fun, but she had that ready 
appreciation that inspires it, and her enjoyment of it was 
good to see. Her voice is even now in my ears, with 
its peculiarly repressive note, as if she dared not trust 
herself to the full soul -expression that unrestrained ca- 
dence gives. I hear it rising now to an earnest insistence 
as she touched a serious theme, or dropping to the play- 
ful, tender, soothing tones of intimacy. Her voice is with 
me, and she is gone. How poor the world is for that 
going ! 

73 



Marietta Ikies — B dftemorg 

And yet, do I dare say that in the face of her own in- 
struction ? " How shall we set a limit," she would say, 
" to the power of our own spirits when, once freed from 
the hindering limitations of the flesh, they are at liberty 
to move whither the spirit wills? Who can tell what 
they may accomplish then of all they failed of, for it is 
spirit not flesh that reigns." 

May that not account for the strong, steadying sense 
that, even while the throat aches and the eyes are dim 
with tears, comes with its strange uplift as I think of her ? 
For she less than any other that has entered into the 
mystery seems dead. Dead! That word of her? That 
even, serene life has not ended. It is going on. The 
freed spirit, flesh at last slipped off, whispers of immor- 
tality. 

There is no room to doubt of her submission to the 
voice that called her from the work for which she was 
supremely fitted. It is we who complain of wasted mate- 
rial in a world where good material is so sadly lacking ; 
it is we who rebel at this lavish spilling of the costly 
spikenard, at the loss of good wine poured upon the 
ground. In the economy of an all-seeing Providence, 
she recognized no waste. Whether the call came now 
or then, she accepted it as the appointed time. Her will 
made its heroic struggle through these final years against 
the infirmities of the flesh, not against the divine ordain- 
ing ; and when the inevitable moment dawned it was not 

74 



Marietta Iftfes.— 21 /ifcemorB 

doom for her, it was promotion, appointment, opportu- 
nity. The very thought of her attitude towards the un- 
known as it approached is a reproach to our faithless 
resistance now in the shadow of our cross. 

There was no room for the possibility of mistake in 
God's Providence for her. I have heard her repeat with 
a smiling serenity that was in itself a reproof to human 
restlessness and impatience — 

" Nor time, nor tide, nor wind, nor fate 
Can keep my own away from me." 

Such certitude of faith I have never seen. She had 

fairly entered into the promise " Ye have those things 

for which ye ask." There was no clamoring at the 

throne of God's bounty for the carrying out of her own 

will. She laid her heart open with her desires, and was 

not blind to the answer if it came in some unlooked-for 

form. " Do thou for me " seemed the language by 

which her life spoke to God. It was given to her as I 

believe it has been given to few to enter into His thought 

for herself and for the world. 

" This was she to me and more — 
That more that words strive to express 
And break in striving - . That more 
That makes the heart ache with the loss 
Of all that is included in the cry 
1 My friend ' uttered above a grave." 

I am loth to put the finishing touches to the picture. 
It is like taking a last look at a loved face. We cannot 

75 



Marietta frtes.— a flfcemorg 

signify "it is enough" and turn away. Some one else 
must lay the compelling hand upon us. Another must 
shut the cover down. But while we wait above her 
recently closed grave into the lonely silence of a world 
from which she has departed drops the flute note of her 
inspiring life message — My good after their good and 
through their good, not my good before their good and 
instead of their good, and grief itself is lost in this call 
to action. So, I believe, it would seem good to her. 



76 



This Memorial is published under the auspices of a committee of 
ladies, personal friends and townswomen of the late Dr. Kies, its pub- 
lication being made possible by the generosity of her relative and 
friend, Mr. Edwin W. Davis, of Pueblo, Colorado, whose modesty 
led him to insist that his name should not appear in any way in 
connection with it. 

The Committee, after allowing all other references to him to be 
expunged, print this note wholly without his knowledge, as a matter 
of simple justice to such modest generosity, and of common interest 
to the many friends of the deceased. 



S. S. Mathews, Compiler. 



Westfield Congregational Parsonage, 

Danielson, Connecticut, June 2, 1900. 



77 



